HBS: Tell us about a time when you made a difficult decision.

This post is on the third of five of the "pick two" questions for the Harvard Business School MBA Application for Fall 2010 Admission. You must answer two questions out of five of these options. All the posts in this series: Overall Strategy, Accomplishments, Mistake, Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, Option 4, and Option 5.  My post on HBS interviews can be found here.

Option 3. Tell us about a time when you made a difficult decision.
(400-word limit)

Before reading this post, you should read my post on Option 2 as my general discussion of leadership and how to answer leadership questions can be found there.

An HBS MBA educuation is very much focused on teaching students about how to make decisions:

AT HBS, EVERY DECISION YOU MAKE IS A PRICELESS LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

There are special moments that pull everything we have learned into focus. When theory, practice, experience and talent all come to one sharp point – a decision that shapes a definitive course of action. When it's no longer an issue of what can be done, but of what you will do.

Decisive moments define a Harvard Business School education. Here, everything from section life to case studies, from field-based learning to international immersions, culminates in one larger lesson – what it means to assume leadership within an ever-growing, ever-changing world.

Given the role of decision making within the way case study is taught at HBS (for more about case study, see the first post in this series), asking applicants to provide an example of their own ability to make a difficult decision is a great way to determine whether the applicant has the potential to benefit from an HBS education.

Conceptualizing and Organizing Your Essay
While it is possible to use the leadership essay gird that I utilized in Option 2, here is another way to think about Option 3:

1. State as clearly as possible what the decision was. Emphasize exactly why the decision was difficult. Just as with "false learning" in the Mistake essay, "false decisions" are to be avoided. Decisions are only real if there are at least good viable choices. For example, if one of two options is clearly unethical or illegal, this would be an example of a "false decision." In fact, bad ethical dilemma essays are often bad because there is no real dilemma because one of two options is not a real option. Keep in mind that a good essay topic here may or may not be based on ethical considerations. One of the nice things about this topic is that a difficult ethical decision is only one possible topic here. The decision might be of a more personal nature. It might relate to an investment. It might relate to hiring or firing someone. It might relate to a technical issue. Whatever the topic, a key consideration is that the decision be real.

2. Explain why the decision was difficult. It is not enough that decision be real, you need to make your reader believe it was difficult. If you can't clearly explain why the decision was difficult, the way your conceptualizing your topic will not work. I will make the assumption that teh decision was difficult because it was about something important. That the decision should important might seem obvious, but I would hate to learn of someone who writes about an unimportant, but difficult decision. Such an answer, while conforming to the literal question being asked, is clearly not what HBS is expecting. Bottom line: Make sure your reader understands both why the decision was difficult and why it was important.

3. Explain what decision you made and why. Obviously given the word count, there will be limited space for this explaination. Still it is absolutely critical that you justify the decision you made as this will give your reader a clear understanding of your thought process. Additionally if you don't fully interpret your decision, you are essentially leaving to your reader to do so, which means you are no longer even trying to control the message you are sending to your reader.

4. State the impact of the decision. It is critical that you actually explain what the outcome was. While someone might want to write on a failed decision, given that this essay set already includes a Mistake essay, I can't recommend doing that. I think it is rather important that the impact be positive.

5. Provide minimally sufficient context for understanding the situation. This is a rather obvious point, but it is important that you provide the minimum context necessary so that the reader can understand the situation. At the same time, given the word count issue here, you will really need to keep this to a minimum.

Finally, keep in mind that questions related to difficult decisions, ethical or otherwise, are very common in MBA interviews.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
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HBS: Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.

This post is on the second of five of the "pick two" questions for the Harvard Business School MBA Application for Fall 2010 Admission. You must answer two questions out of five of these options. All the posts in this series: Overall Strategy, Accomplishments, Mistake, Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, Option 4, and Option 5. My post on HBS interviews can be found here.
 
Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.
(400-word limit)

HBS has provided a leadership question that anyone can answer. "Community" and "organization" are such inclusive terms that one might be referring to a small local community, a virtual community, a specific ethnic/religious community, a corporation, a small company, a worldwide NGO, a school, etc. Engagement means involvement, contribution, making a difference. To do so is to show the potential for leadership that HBS is looking for. If you don't write on this question, your leadership potential must be accounted for elsewhere in the HBS application. The most likely alternatives include Option 3 and the Accomplishments question.

HBS is about leadership. The HBS mission statement makes that clear: The mission of Harvard Business School is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. As such HBS places a very high premium on applicants' leadership potential:
A Habit of Leadership
We recognize—and welcome—leadership that may be expressed in many forms, from college extracurricular activities to academic or business achievements, from personal accomplishments to community commitments. We appreciate leadership on any scale as well, from organizing a classroom to directing a combat squad, from running an independent business to spearheading initiatives at work. In essence, we are looking for evidence of your potential — a portfolio of experiences, initiatives, and accomplishments that reflect a habit of leadership.
Harvard thus has a very open-ended conception of leadership, but they are rigid in the necessity that applicants demonstrate it. I think this is true for other schools to a varying extent as well. For example, like HBS, "INSEAD is looking for applicants who can demonstrate their potential as leaders." Also see my comparison of leadership at HBS and Stanford GSB. Even if a set of business school essay questions does not necessarily explicitly ask for you to show your potential for leadership, your leadership had better be expressed.

Leadership is no easy thing. Nor is it obvious. The worst possible thing is to conceive of leadership as simple formal responsibility or a title because this conveys nothing about the person in that position. While some applicants will have held formal leadership positions, many will not.

Formal leadership positions are great to write about if they involve the applicant actually having significant impact, making a difficult decision, being a visionary, showing creativity, or otherwise going beyond their formal responsibility, but the same is true for those showing leadership without having a formal title.

If you are having difficulty really understanding leadership, I have a few suggestions.

First, one great place to read about leadership, and business in general, is Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

Second, find out what kind of leader you are by taking this quiz based on Lewin's classic framework. I think leadership is more complicated than Lewin's framework, but this quiz is a great way to get you started thinking about yourself, a key part of answering any leadership essay question effectively.

Third, if you have not done so, I suggest reading relevant essays in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays: With Analysis by the Staff of the Harbus, The Harvard Business School Newspaper. Reading through the essays on leadership should help you to understand the great diversity of topics that are possible.

OK, now that we have grounded ourselves in understanding the importance of leadership and begun to develop some possible leadership stories, how should you proceed?

I have developed the following grid to help you outline your leadership story. The categories this grid employs may go beyond any particular school's essay requirements. Filling it out completely will help you write about your leadership in a way that will convince admissions of your leadership potential.
CLICK TO ENLARGE.

How to use the grid:
1. Decide on a specific story. HBS Option 2 is asking about "a community or organization,"so select only one. If you write on HBS Option 3, clearly the focus on the decision you made.
2. Identify the most significant things you did in the situation, these are you action steps.
3. For each action step identify:

• What skills or qualities you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The strengths you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The kind of leadership you demonstrated.
• What you still need to learn about leadership.

4. Think about the results and identify how they relate to your action steps. So at minimum, you should be able to state the impact on the community or organization. Additionally you may find that you are able to state the impact on yourself.

5. After completing the chart you will see that some aspects of your action steps may be repeated. If there is a total duplication and nothing new is shown, either you need to redefine the action step or you may decide not to focus on it very much.

6. Once you think you have two to four fully worked-out action steps, start writing your essay.

7. Next, start re-writing. Eliminate duplicate points made between action steps. Make choices about what parts of each action to step to highlight. Given that there are usually word limits, you will have to make some decisions about what to include.

Simply providing a description of your engagement, is not enough. Think about what it signifies about you. Think about what your engagement reveals about your leadership potential, your professional or personal goals, and/or your skill set.

Option 2 or Option 3? Write on both?
If the story you are telling is more focused on decision making and not so focused on engagement in an organization or community, Option 3 is clearly better. I suppose it is possible to write on both of these options, but if you did so, clearly very different stories with little or no overlap would be ideal. In addition, it would be important to include something about your future goals and reason for wanting an MBA somewhere in the essay set.

Writing about Goals in Option 2 or Option 3
If the story you tell in either option connects in well with your future goals, it is certainly possible to use Option 2 or Option 3 for that purpose. That said, I never saw a set of essays that used Option 2 for that purpose. That fact alone may make the choice of doing so effective for the right candidate telling the right story.

Finally, thinking and writing about leadership is an important part of preparing for interviews because you can be certain that you will have to talk about leadership. So you might find that the parts of the outline you jettison now will become valuable when you will want to have alternative stories for your HBS interview.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
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HBS: What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

This post is on the first of five of the "pick two" questions for the Harvard Business School MBA Application for Fall 2010 Admission. You must answer two questions out of five of these options. All the posts in this series: Overall Strategy, Accomplishments, Mistake, Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, Option 4, and Option 5. My post on HBS interviews can be found here.

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience? (400-word limit)

It is rather obvious that the questions an MBA program asks you reflect its admissions strategies. This is as true for the Harvard Business School as for any other school. For example, when HBS introduced the this question in 2005, it was directly connected to an effort to recruit younger applicants.

This question is obviously ideal for an applicant to the 2+2 program, a graduating senior or someone with 1 or 2 years of work to answer.It is no surprise that they ask this question. Consider the emphasis that HBS puts on academic ability:

"Harvard Business School is a demanding, fast-paced, and highly-verbal environment. We look for individuals who will thrive on sophisticated ideas and lively discussion. Our case-based method of learning depends upon the active participation of prepared students who can assess, analyze, and act upon complex information within often-ambiguous contexts. The MBA Admissions Board will review your prior academic performance, the results of the GMAT, and, if applicable, TOEFL and/or IELTS, and the nature of your work experience. There is no particular previous course of study required to apply; you must, however, demonstrate the ability to master analytical and quantitative concepts."

More generally, I think that this question is great for any applicant who learned something valuable in their undergraduate academic program. You don't need a high GPA to answer this one and, in fact, those who don't have a high GPA, but actually did something meaningful as part of their program of study, should consider writing on this topic to help mitigate the impact of a weak GPA.

For those who have been out of school for a while or would prefer to emphasize other aspects of their background, this question need not be answered as long as some other aspect(s) of your application- GMAT score, GPA, transcript, your resume, or perhaps one of your substantial accomplishments- demonstrates your academic potential to succeed. You must demonstrate your academic potential somewhere in your application (Yes, a solid GPA and GMAT are enough for that purpose), so if you find that have not done so effectively elsewhere and have an important story to tell about your undergraduate experience, you should most certainly consider writing an essay on this question.

Additionally for those whose undergraduate academic experience connects to their career vision and/or reasons for obtaining an MBA, part of this essay may very well serve that explanatory purpose. If you do find that you can best relate your career vision and/or reasons for pursuing an MBA on this topic, I still suggest you closely review my analysis of Option 5.

ESSAY STRUCTURE
The likely structure for your answer here may very well be similar to the Accomplishments Essay. That said, while it is possible to write on multiple aspects of your academic experience (two to four different topics), it is certainly possible that you might want to focus on only one topic here.

WARNING
The following two topics are not really so effective here:
1. A story focused on your graduate school experience. Unless the point is to simply show that your undergraduate work laid the foundation for your graduate studies, discussing graduate school is pretty much outside of the scope of what is acceptable here.
2. A story focused on your non-academic undergraduate activities. Clearly this is not part of what HBS is asking about.
Both topics might very well have their place in the Accomplishments essay, but not here.

Finally, I should point out that I don't see any advantage to using this essay to explain a bad GPA. Instead focus not such an explanation, but on making a clear argument for why you are strong candidate. There is an additional information section on the application which is long enough to provide a brief explanation of anything problematic in your academic background.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
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HBS: What have you learned from a mistake?

This post is on the second of two required questions for the Harvard Business School MBA Application for Fall 2010 Admission. All the posts in this series: Overall Strategy, Accomplishments, Mistake, Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, Option 4, and Option 5. My post on HBS interviews can be found here.

2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

I think the reason HBS, as well as many other schools, ask about mistakes and failures is because they want to see that you have the ability to learn from errors and/or problems. Clearly this is an important skill required for analyzing case studies.

I think it is important that we read what is written here very closely as it will help you see that there are multiple correct ways to answer this question. It is particularly important to differentiate between a failure and a mistake:

FAILURE: 1. The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends: the failure of an experiment. 2. One that fails: a failure at one's career. 3. The condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short: a crop failure. 4. A cessation of proper functioning or performance: a power failure. 5. Nonperformance of what is requested or expected; omission: .failure to report a change of address. 6. The act or fact of failing to pass a course, test, or assignment. 7. A decline in strength or effectiveness.

MISTAKE: 1. An error or fault resulting from defective judgment, deficient knowledge, or carelessness. 2. A misconception or misunderstanding.

A mistake is wider in scope than a failure because not all mistakes necessarily lead to failure, though human failures are certainly the result of mistakes. A mistake may lead to a failure. A mistake may actually lead to a positive unintended outcome.

Notice that HBS does not say "your mistake." It is possible that the mistake you learned from might be one where you were an observer, a victim, and/or the source of the solution. That said, I can't recommend writing about a mistake where you blame someone else. After all, leaders take responsibility and if you are using one of your four essays to show why you are not responsible, I don't think you will be optimizing your chances for an interview invitation from HBS.

It is critical that you learned something meaningful about yourself. And your learning about yourself should be important, otherwise why tell admissions about it? Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the mistake is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.
I would, in fact, argue that the heart of any sort of "failure question," whether it is an essay question or an interview is what you learned. Also depending on what your role was, how you reacted is also very important.

The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the mistake was.
2. Clearly state your role.
3. Explain how you reacted to the situation.
4. Explain what you learned.
5. If applicable, show how you applied what you learned to a new situation. Given the word count limitations, getting to this step can be challenging, but I highly recommend it.

The nice thing about mistakes is that everyone makes them. That said, if your mistake is terribly minor, it is unlikely to really to reveal anything significant. So focus on a big mistake where you really learned something. The word count is limited, but, if you can, show how you applied what you learned to a new situation because the application of abstract learning to a new situation is a key indicator of real learning. Think about really demonstrating the value of what you learned. In this regard, I think it is often the case that older mistakes make better topics because the post-mistake learning is likely to more effectively result in application to a new situation.

FALSE LEARNING
Every year as part of my reapplication counseling work, I read mistake/failure essays that are part of applications to schools like HBS, Wharton, and INSEAD. One major reason why a failure/mistake essay might not work well is false learning. False learning is any situation when you indicate that you learned something, but actually it was something that you already knew or others are likely to assume that you know. False learning tends to undermine the credibility of applicant in terms of their intelligence and honesty. It is thus best avoided. To avoid it, simply ask yourself whether you actually learned something new and were not merely reminded of the sort of thing you have learned while in kindergarten or soon thereafter.

Topic Selection
Pick a failure that you can be proud of and that ultimately shows you in positive light based on the understanding that you obtained and the maturity you demonstrated after the fact. The topic might be academic, personal, or professional. When you select the topic, think not only aboutthe topic's significance, but also it's impact on overall balance within your essay set.

Some topics are best avoided. For example, it is usually unattractive to consider your employment termination due to entering into a particular job sector or for a particular employer as a mistake. Failed romantic relationship mistakes are even less likely to result in an effective HBS essay. Such topics might certainly be great moments of learning, but such topics rarely make good essays as they tend to have an undercurrent of regret, possibly anger, and often communicate nothing very positive about the applicant.

I hope you write about a great mistake successfully.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
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HBS: What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such?

This post is on the first of two required questions for the Harvard Business School MBA Application for Fall 2010 Admission. All the posts in this series: Overall Strategy, Accomplishments, Mistake, Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, Option 4, and Option 5. My post on HBS interviews can be found here.

1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

HBS has asked this question for a very long time. According to 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, "This is one of those essays that is probably a permanent fixture in the HBS application (p. 121)." So far it has been the only question not to change. HBS has made this one of the mandatory questions because...
-Accomplishments reveal your potential to succeed at HBS and afterwards.
-Accomplishments reveal your potential for contributing to your classmates.
-Everyone has had accomplishments, so it is easy to compare applicants.
-What you consider to be an accomplishment are real tests of your self-awareness and judgment.

The following grid is the kind I have used successfully with applicants preparing this question (and the similar two accomplishment version for INSEAD):

CLICK TO ENLARGE.

How to use this grid for outlining your answer to Question 1:

Row 1: "Stories." The first thing you need to do is think of the accomplishments. These will eventually take the form of stories, so that is what I call them. A few things to keep in mind:

• Your accomplishments may be personal, professional, or academic. If academic, make sure the accomplishment does not overlap with Option 1 if you choose to write on that question.
• While it is very important that your accomplishments be distinct so as to reveal different things about you, there is no single formula for what their content must be. Especially given the highly variable nature of this essay set, it is possible that you have three professional accomplishments or one personal/one professional/one academic or two academic/one personal. It really will depend on your background. Some people think you need to have one academic, one professional, and one extracurricular here. My experience with both admits and those invited for interviews is that this is not the case.
  
• The key consideration is that each accomplishment must be substantial and that you can explain why.

Row 2: "What skill, value, or unique experience is being showcased?" Your accomplishments need to reveal valuable things about you. Some will call these selling points, but more specifically they consist of skills, values, or unique experiences. One might use a specific accomplishment to emphasize one's leadership skills, another to show one's ethical values, and another to explain a significant barrier that was overcome. The point is that each accomplishment must , at its core, reveal something key to understanding who you are.

Row 3: "What potential for success in the MBA program or afterwards is demonstrated?" You may or may not be directly stating this in the essay, but you should think about what each accomplishment reveals in terms of your potential. HBS Adcom will most certainly be considering how your accomplishments demonstrate your potential to succeed at HBS and afterwards, so you should as well. One key way of thinking about the MBA application process is to see it as a test of potential. Potential itself can mean different things at different schools and so you must keep in mind differences between schools and, in particular, must pay close attention to what schools say really matters when they assess applicants. Harvard Business School Admissions states:
Genuine business talent cannot be narrowly defined. Instead of looking for an "ideal" candidate, HBS invites MBA applicants who exhibit a variety of skills, accomplishments, and temperaments. The true common characteristics of our students are demonstrated leadership potential and a capacity to thrive in a rigorous academic environment.
Therefore, please keep in mind that a core part of your own application strategy should be determining which parts of yourself to emphasize both overall and for a particular school. For example, at HBS, clearly "demonstrated leadership potential" and a strong academic background are necessary. In fact, the latter is particularly important at HBS, especially because the forced grading curve makes it a uniquely challenging academic environment. For more about academic potential, see my comments on Option 1.

Beyond the potential to succeed at HBS, you may want to use one of your accomplishments to show why you will be able to reach your post-MBA goals. In fact, given the structure of the HBS set, you may end up writing about your goals in this essay if your goals relate directly to one or more of the accomplishments you write about.

Row 4: "Will this be a contribution to others in the MBA program? How?" Just as with potential, think about whether your accomplishments demonstrate your ability to add value to other students at HBS. Given space limitations, it is not likely that you will explain how one or more of your accomplishments will be a contribution, but rather this is a strategic consideration. The dynamic nature of case study at HBS is very much based on what each student contributes. Think about whether any of your accomplishments demonstrate how you will likely add value to other students' HBS experience. Not all substantial accomplishments will have this quality, but many will.

Row 5: "Why does Adcom need to know about this?" If your accomplishment has made it this far, chances are it is substantial. That said, I have two simple tests for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay. The first is whether the Harvard Business School Admissions Committee (Adcom) really needs to know about this accomplishment. After all, you might consider getting the love of your life to marry you to be one of your most substantial accomplishments, but will Adcom care? If an accomplishment does not reveal (whether stated or implied) potential and/or contribution, chances are likely that it is not significant enough.

Row 6: "Is this something Adcom could learn about you elsewhere? (If "YES," find another accomplishment)" The second and final simple test I have for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay is based on the idea that something that is totally obvious about you to anyone looking at your resume and transcript is probably not worth mentioning. If you were a CPA, having an accomplishment that merely demonstrated you were good at accounting would not be worth writing about. Instead it would be important to show something more specific that reveals something that is not obvious by a mere examination of the basic facts of your application.

Finally, as I mentioned above, what you include here is a real test of your judgment, so don't just write about your obvious accomplishments. Think deeply and come up with a set of unique accomplishments that reveal distinct, interesting, and the most important things about you that will compel admissions to want to interview you.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
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